THE NEW YORKER 25 5POR. T 5 OF THE. WE.E.K The Story of a Phe- nomenon P RESSURE in all sports works in mysterious ways its wonders to perform. But in golf it seems to be at its mysterious best. It was pressure against Bobby Jones, probabl y the weariest champion that ever took the field, that carried him through to his second Open title at the Scioto Country Club, at Columbus, Ohio; that lifted him through proba- bly one of the greatest nine-hole ef- forts ever offered anywhere, to vic- tory. Bobby Jones the serene, the per- fect medal-play golfer, is a familiar figure. Bobby Jones, ablaze with something like wrath against the pres- sure of the elements, and even against himself; Bobby Jones, resurgent, was :a young man to cheer about. The double title-holder turned in a 79, the worst tally in his career as an Open Championship contender, on a stormy Friday, a Friday that was swept with a hot Buckeye gale, when both he and Hagen, two of the greatest fighters on the links, each in his own individual way, actually labored and played really wonderful golf to get ordinary scores. But on the following overcast Saturday morning there was another Bobby Jones in action. The Atlanta phenomenon had called upon his ultimate resources. He was still grim about it, and the usual Jones smile was not in evidence until he had holed out on the final g reen knowin (Y' , b not even then whether he was safe from his pursuers, Willie Hunter, Bill s;;.vtJN &''' uP : 7U N A '"'HG MAq-rf:,R ç>Uíí / '- I I . Mehlhorn, Chick Evans, and a few n10re. . So, as he left the eighteenth green, hIs father, R. P. Jones, threw his arm about the stocky young champion and said: "Dammit, son, some one of these fellows may thrash in with a better score and win the championship. I don't care, and neither do you, but I know this, that you have the greatest heart that ever went into the body of an athlete." It may be said that this sort of thing is rather in the mode of golf mania, that all of us who are en- thusiastic over golf and its critical moments run to the dramatics. How- ever, they are absentees at the cham- pionships, these critics. It is worth while considering that Jones had indulged in not1D.ing like a real rest f fom the day that he ap- peared in England as a member of the Walker Cup team. If it wasn't com- petition, it was feting-the steady drive on good nature. The result was A Z N. rA-RRELL."1 LI-\ D/Eb:f:,L \ '/1 J /1 I , I / I I that when Bobby first went out at Sci- oto he put together a good score, not far from Wild Bill Mehlhorn, but did it with an effort to which he was un- accustomed. He admitted that to get his 7 a he had worked as he had never worked before. Then came the terrible 79, and the sudden call on conscious courage that had never before come to him. And this call upon conscious courage is the severest test of golf. It means a con- centration that seldom helps-not the concentration on perfect shot-making, but the concentration on picking up lost strokes, the constant thinking that one must come through. In the first work over the course , the great champion played as neatly as ever, as cleanly as ever, but without the crispness that marks him at his best. I think that at the close of Thursday he did not care greatly whether he won or not. But when the scores were in on Friday, good nature was in the discard. On Saturday morning Jones set out to win, if possible. It did not seem possible. He knew, from his experience in the rough, and from one sudden rally that resulted in giving every bit of cunning he had to a "res- cue" stroke, a pitch to the green over a tree, that he was taking every last ounce out of himself. He knew that the greatest golfer in the world-who happened to be himself--could do no more. And that did not appear to be good enough. But on Saturday he began to pick up the strokes. He picked them up with par golf, and resorted, too, to the birdie. He knew exactly what he had to do, to beat Joe Turnesa, who had come in ahead of him and was leading the field. The situation when he reached the eighteenth tee on a par 5 hole was to put away a 4 for th cJOHA ßU (..